Transcript of "Training session"

3.
What is Twitter?
• Twitter is a social networking
and micro-blogging platform
• It’s a bit like blogging, a bit
like texting and a bit like
instant messaging
• Tweets are text-based posts
of up to 140 characters
displayed on the author's
profile page and delivered to
the author's subscribers who
are known as followers

7.
Important Definitions
• TWEET
– Each comment posted on Twitter is referred to as a tweet, and the act of
sending a tweet is referred to as tweeting
• RETWEET
– A Retweet is a type of message posted (or tweeted) on micro blogging
service, Twitter, that repeats some information previously tweeted by
another user, symbolised by RT at beginning of Tweet. E.g.
RT@BRITNEYSPEARS I love fish!
• FOLLOWING
– To subscribe to someone’s Twitter updates
• FOLLOWERS
– To have people subscribing to your Twitter updates
• @Reply
– Beginning your Tweet or citing @personsname in your Tweet designates
that you are referring to @personsname. People tend to monitor their @
mentions so it acts as a convenient, albeit public, way to communicate with
people who are not following you

8.
Important Definitions
• HASHTAG
– a topic with a hash symbol (“#”) at the start to identify it. Twitter
hashtags like #fishfriday help spread information on Twitter while
also helping to organise it
• LIST
– A convenient way to bunch other users on Twitter into Groups to get
an overview of what they’re up to
• DM
– Short for Direct Message, a private Tweet which you can only send
to people who are following you
• TRENDING TOPICS
– Twitter indexes the most common phrases currently appearing in
messages, making it into a discovery engine for finding out what is
happening right now.

26.
Planning is vital
• Strategy
– The plan of action to achieve a goal or
objective
• Tactics
– The methods and means used to execute a
strategy
• Goals/objectives
– The end point. The result. What you want at
the end.
• Target
– An objective or aim within a specific time.
You would have a target on the way to
achieving your goal.

27.
Twitter Policy and Guidelines
• Have IT signed off on sites being accessed?
• IT tested/approved social media tools?
• Work with HR to create policy for usage:
– Covers you legally
– Gives staff reassurance
– Helps prevent comms disasters
– Specify bandwidth, platform use
– Different accounts for work and personal
– Cover not just bandwidth but hours
– Acknowledge their rights but point out the
wider issues
– http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
!

28.
How will you speak to them?
• ‘Marketing speak’ just does not work
– Avoid exaggeration – people can spot it, and do not need to put up with it
– Is it really ‘the world’s leading’?
• Be human
– Chatty, simple language works best
– Avoid jargon at all costs
• Be friendly
– Relationships can be formed very quickly online
• Be open
– People are largely very understanding. If issues arise be up-front and open and
maintain dialogue
• Transparency
– Always state your intention
– Always state who you are representing

35.
Using Twitter tips
• Unless you tell them otherwise, people expect an answer within hours
of sending a tweet - on the same day at the very least
• While you can send tweets of up to 140 characters, it’s better to send
ones under 120 and shorter the better, to make it easier to share
• If you have any keywords put them in your first 70 characters so that
search engines like Google see them more prominently
• Don’t use long web URL addresses use a bit.ly link instead - far shorter
and you can see how many people click on a link
• Always remember the 7:2:1 rule - seven tweets should not be
about you, two can be slightly and one can be a blatant pitch to
get people to purchase/download
• You can post the same tweet more than once
• Try to always have a call to action in tweets

45.
Building a following/who is the
audience?
• You create a reason for
people to follow you by being
relevant and interesting to
them
• Who’s ‘them’?
– Journalists
– MSPs/MEPs/MPs
– Prospects
– Clients
– Customers
– Internal stakeholders
• Audience mapping is key to
building a following

46.
Building your following
• Once you have identified who your target audience is, where they
reside and what they are interested in, then now it is time to go to work
• The parameters for your Twitter, and perhaps broader social media
activity, should be set based upon your objectives, set out at the
beginning, combined with the above intelligence
• When developing your plans it is ideal to create as many different
suitable focal points as possible, both in terms of collateral and in
terms of discussion points
• Although this approach requires slightly more effort it ensures you will
have a greater degree of success
• Remember one key thing: What can you give people, how can
you help them?
• It’s not about you, it’s about them

47.
Building a following
• Its OK to have an initial goal and
then to amend this over time, as
you grow in confidence and
experience
• Brands and organisations that are
deemed to be pioneering in social
media all started off small and
built on their learnings as they
went
• Dell didn’t go from a standing start
on Twitter to generating millions of
dollars over night!

48.
Building a following
• Its also important to consider the fact
that Twitter can impact a business in
many ways
– PR, Marketing, Customer Services, Market
Research, Sales, HR, Recruitment
• Many organisations seem to feel most
comfortable with their Twitter activity
initially sitting with PR or marketing
• In this case a sensible starting point
might be to use it for information or
news distribution and then build on
this accordingly
– Shifting from one way communication to
becoming more engaging over time
• Have a clear objective, one way or the
other

49.
Building a following
• We now need to create that reason for our audience to follow us
• We do this by researching and getting under the skin of what it is our
target audience is interested in
– What are the kind of things the tweet about?
– What do they Retweet?
– What type of content or links do they share?
– Who else are they following? What do they talk about?
• Its also important to try and get a good feel for what they are not
interested in

50.
Where will Twitter content come
from?
• SPFA website - not only the home page but also deeper links. It’s a
good idea to make sure the home page is up to date as people may
click on it in links, remembering that the idea is to provide useful
information at a glace
• Other tweeters
• Other social media networks like Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and
Pinterest - all of which have relevant material.

52.
Promoted Tweets
• Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who
want to reach a wider group of users or to spark engagement from their
existing followers
• Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled as Promoted when an advertiser
is paying for their placement on Twitter
• In every other respect, Promoted Tweets act just like regular Tweets
and can be retweeted, replied to, favorited and more
• All Promoted Tweets are first displayed as regular Tweets to the
timelines of people following an account
• The advertisers can then promote those Tweets to spark additional
conversation

53.
Promoted Tweets
• Users see Promoted Tweets at the top of relevant search result pages
on Twitter
• In Search Results for a Promoted Trend. Users may also see a
Promoted Tweet in the search results when they click on a Promoted
Trend
• A Promoted Tweet will appear in a user’s timeline only if the Tweet is
likely to be interesting and relevant to that user
• Twitter uses a variety of signals to determine which Promoted Tweets
are relevant to users, including what a user chooses to follow, how they
interact with a Tweet, what they reTweet, and more

55.
Twitter etiquette – Do...
• Be transparent
– Use a genuine username and account name, fill out your bio and
add a picture. This helps people to know who you are and what your
interests are. If they don’t know this, they might be suspicious of you
if you try to follow them.
• Be professional
– If you use Twitter for your work, state this in your bio so that people
know that you might not be impartial

56.
Twitter etiquette – Do...
• Build relationships
– It’s fine to follow people you don’t know. It’s perfectly valid to be
interested in what they have to say, rather than who they are. If they
want to, they can follow you back.
– Similarly, don’t worry about unfollowing people. This isn’t flagged at
the other end and there are many reasons to unfollow people which
are not necessarily personal.
– Feel free to @reply to people or DM them if they’re following you
too. As long as you’re polite, it means you’re showing interest in
what they have to say.
– If you think someone has said or linked to something particularly
interested, ReTweeting that is a great way to endorse and promote
them – and they might return the favour in future

58.
Measuring Twitter
• It’s important to measure your progress, or the progress of the
people you are monitoring
• To do this, use the same metrics you adopted to ascertain their
influence, whether through Twitter’s own statistics, or through
one of the third-party tools mentioned
• As with all measurement however, make sure that what you
measure is relevant to your strategy and objectives, and that they
in turn tie in to what you want to achieve for yourself or your
organisation